Yes, I'm delighted to announce that I'm working on the sequel to Elven Relations...Elven Relations 2: Mermaid Liaisons!

When and where is it set?It's set in the world of Elven Relations, a year or two after the events of the first game.

The Sequel ProblemOne of the problems in writing a sequel to a multi-ending VN is the question of which ending do you carry on from? Some game series designate one of the first game's endings as the "true ending", but I didn't want to do that: none of the endings in ER1 is meant to be "truer" than the others. (Well, certainly out of the three girls' best endings, none is truer than any other. I'd be happy to say that Tohko's best ending is truer than her good ending.)

So I'm doing what seems to be the obvious plan, although it's a bit more work than some of the other options: the game allows you to carry on from any of the ER1 endings.

More specifically, ER2 will detect which ER1 endings have been reached on this machine, using Ren'Py's MultiPersistent technology (which I had the foresight to build into ER1 ), and allow you to continue from any of the ER1 endings that you've reached. If no ER1 data is detected, then it'll carry on from ER1 Ending 8.

But I played Elven Relations on a different computer!There will also be a way to unlock the ability to start from any ER1 ending within ER2, though it probably won't be easy.

What's this about mermaids?Mermaid Liaisons will have several characters who are mer, the race of sea-dwellers that were mentioned in passing in ER1. They're similar in appearance to the classical mermen and mermaids, and refer to themselves as such.

How many girls are there? Will there be a mermaid? Will there be an elf girl?There will be four romanceable characters in the game: two mermaids, a human girl and an elf girl.The elf girl and the mermaids are new characters for ER2, but the human girl is our beloved fire mage, Tohko Tanomazu

Who's the protagonist? Is it Takuya?No, for assorted reasons I decided that I didn't want Takuya to be the protagonist of the sequel. Instead, the main character of Elven Relations 2: Mermaid Liaisons will be your good friend from the first game, Kei!

(Minor spoilers for Elven Relations 1 follow)

But... in one of the Elven Relations endings, Kei was together with Tohko!And if you continue from that ending, then Kei and Tohko will be together, and the challenge will be to maintain your relationship with that delightful, tempestuous girl

On the other hand, if you continue from any of the other ER1 endings, then Kei and Tohko won't be together, and she'll be a normal romanceable character.

But what if I continue from an ending where Takuya and Tohko were together?Ah, yes. In that case, Tohko will still be around; if Kei tries to pursue her, then he'll be going behind his best friend Takuya's back.

What will the game plot be like?There will be a little more main plot to the story than Elven Relations 1 had. But I'm aiming to preserve the feeling of light-hearted fantasy romance that people loved about Elven Relations.

Will there be combats like in ER1?I'm not sure yet. If you feel strongly one way or the other, let me know.

When will the game be out?Not for a few months yet, I'm afraid. It's currently at the "detailed plans" stage - I've got a lot of the main plot, character-specific plot and character details figured out, and am finishing up the plans before writing the scene-by-scene outline and then the script. So I'm not expecting the game to be released before, say, April.

Will SunKitten be doing the art again?Yes! In fact, it's partly due to her urging that I'm moving ahead with the game. She enjoys creating VN artwork and was asking me when the next game would be She's currently putting together character designs, but we know from When I Rule The World and Elven Relations that she can put together amazing art amazingly quickly, so I'm going to be the bottleneck

What's with the WIP thread? You don't normally do those, chrono!Yeah... true... I think I just wanted somewhere to talk about ER2:ML without filling up the ER1 thread. I'm not expecting to post weekly updates or anything. I just wanted to have somewhere to make the announcement

Well, I already knew you were going for it, but officializing it is *good*... and reading how you're going to deal with this sequel is even better! I thought "oh dear, will there be starting paths for each girl you could end up with? Who will we romance then? Guh!"

But no, you go with a way more interesting situation that can *still* be affected by the ending you got in ER1

I'm glad to hear that Kei is getting a day in the spotlight. By taking the focus off Takuya, we'll get a new perspective. And it'll avoid the problem of having a POV character whose relationships are completely different from game #1 to game #2.

_________________"Welcome to WhiteSnow, a town filled with snow. Enjoy the world of snow."
-Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure

Great news! I had a lot of fun with ER and hearing about this sequel made my day. Good to hear you're aiming even higher this time; with a meatier plot, no less than four girls to romance and the variety of starting conditions, I'm sure it'll be an instant classic.

Will there be cameos from other familiar characters like Yurika, Takuya or anyone? It'd be nice to see them again.

mermaids!!! (wonders what kind of flowers mermaids like, how to date them, and how well they survive on land)

OK have to ask this:

Suppose Kei and Tohko hooked up at the end of ER 1, but I want Kei to date a mermaid, How would fire mage Tohko react to Kei wanting to date a WATER creature? Would she so tsundere on Kei for wanting to date someone from the horrid water element

Count me in on those wanting to play it!

_________________A friend is one that walks in when the world walks out.

Suppose Kei and Tohko hooked up at the end of ER 1, but I want Kei to date a mermaid, How would fire mage Tohko react to Kei wanting to date a WATER creature? Would she so tsundere on Kei for wanting to date someone from the horrid water element

Note: You don't cross a fire mage, even if your name is not Takuya.

But still, merfolks. Sounds like I will be enjoying ER2. However, I wonder...

- If they have an innate tail or they can switch between legs or tail?(That leads to another question,... nudity? D:

I'm glad to hear that Kei is getting a day in the spotlight. By taking the focus off Takuya, we'll get a new perspective. And it'll avoid the problem of having a POV character whose relationships are completely different from game #1 to game #2.

Indeed. I don't like it when you worked for a relationship with a girl in game #1, and then there's no option to continue that in game #2. And if you show the relationship from game #1 going wrong in game #2, it undermines the whole happy feeling about game #1.

Guest wrote:

Great news! I had a lot of fun with ER and hearing about this sequel made my day. Good to hear you're aiming even higher this time; with a meatier plot, no less than four girls to romance and the variety of starting conditions, I'm sure it'll be an instant classic.

I thought four was the right number. I wanted to aim slightly higher than ER1, but I know Elven Relations was basically pretty well received, and I do want to finish this game! ^^;;

Quote:

Will there be cameos from other familiar characters like Yurika, Takuya or anyone? It'd be nice to see them again.

I hope so. Probably not much more than cameos, and I can't guarantee anything, but I hope so

musical74 wrote:

mermaids!!! (wonders what kind of flowers mermaids like, how to date them, and how well they survive on land)

OK have to ask this:

Suppose Kei and Tohko hooked up at the end of ER 1, but I want Kei to date a mermaid, How would fire mage Tohko react to Kei wanting to date a WATER creature? Would she so tsundere on Kei for wanting to date someone from the horrid water element

There are answers to all these things, but you'll have to wait to play the game to find out

F.I.A wrote:

But still, merfolks. Sounds like I will be enjoying ER2. However, I wonder...

- If they have an innate tail or they can switch between legs or tail?(That leads to another question,... nudity? D:

Mermaid Liaisons will be the same age rating as Elven Relations: no nudity or explicit dialogue, though possible occasional suggestiveness.As for the other question, there are elements of each (that's one of the aspects of the setting I'm quite happy with): again, it's probably best if you wait to play to find out the details

I loved the combat engine in ER1, though, and wouldn't mind seeing a few more RPG-style heroic battles with back-to-back girlfriends.

On Tohko: While my first reaction on Tohko being the returning girl was "hey! Yurika's the hottest of the three!" I realized that the possibility of Yurika fooling around behind her Private Kiseki's back seems...rather less likely than Tohko doing the same.

It's great to see you working on ER2, I loved the first one. Great idea to open up more of the game world with the Merpeople to the south, lends to a more developed sense of environment when one plays them back 2 back. Your Elven Relations was so well polished and seamless that it was one of games that got me interested in working on a VN with RenPy. Which is saying alot, my last game was in QBasic! You have inspired many, and I wish you the best of luck and god speed... Cause I can't wait to play ER2! -$inker

I'm so happy that RenPy does not use the GOTO command, Jump is almost as bad, but it's alot easier with labels and menus right! I liked the menu branching you did in ER1 as well, easy to follow when you replay the game. Will you be doing the same sort of choice branching with variables? or go with something different? More variables perhaps? More RPG style stats? the posibilities are endless aren't they... -$inker

Regarding the battle system...I found the *say who you are going to protect* better than the actual fight itself - yes it's more fun watching the battle BUT you need to pay VERY CLOSE attention to the battle - ESP the latter ones...or they would clobber ya - which happened enough that I just said the heck with it and decided to say *protect A* and have the battle play out ifself instead of getting me involved. Not that it was impossible, just hard.

_________________A friend is one that walks in when the world walks out.

Who is online

You cannot post new topics in this forumYou cannot reply to topics in this forumYou cannot edit your posts in this forumYou cannot delete your posts in this forumYou cannot post attachments in this forum